Golden Nugget Gains Competition

It seems Golden Nugget’s monopoly on live dealer table games in NJ online casinos will soon be over. Borgata will be joining the tables. In fact, it is one of two Atlantic City operators planning to launch live dealer games this year. The other operator is still unconfirmed.

Live dealer games make revenues soar

In March 2018, Golden Nugget earned $8.7 million in gross gaming revenue. This keeps the giant at the top of the NJ market. In comparison, Golden Nugget nearest competitor, Borgata, generated half, at $4.6 million. So why is Golden Nugget doing well? A key factor is its introduction of live dealer games. In an interview, Golden Nugget Senior VP of Online Gaming, Thomas Winter, explains. He says live games have increased the online table game revenue by 150% since August 2016. He added: “We believe Live Dealer has the potential to become bigger than online poker in revenues in the US.” Betfair Casino, a Golden Nugget sub-brand, also launched live dealer games in May 2017. Their revenue began climbing after a few months.

Borgata’s figures likely to increase with its new venture

According to a press release, the new live dealer games will be available for all GVC casinos. This include’s Borgata online casino as well as the recently revamped PartyCasino.

Paris Anatolitis is Casino Marketing Director for GVC. She said that high demand for NJ’s live games could bring all GVC Operators “on par, or ahead of, the competition.” Indeed, ahead of the competition is very possible. Because all GVC’s live games could be powered by Evolution Gaming. And as you know, Evolution Gaming is a giant when it comes to Live casino games. Since they’ve been in business for about 2 decades and specialize in HD streaming.

So why have operators waited so long?

Building and running a live dealer studio is very expensive. Yet as we can see from Golden Nugget’s success, it might be worth the investment. What’s more, some of the cost could be offset by running live dealer games in two markets out of one single studio. This is now possible because online gambling became legal in Pennsylvania last October.